{"id":185037,"date":"2017-06-21T10:44:13","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T10:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/with-health-law-in-flux-insurers-scramble-to-meet-filing-deadline\/"},"modified":"2017-06-21T10:44:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T10:44:13","slug":"with-health-law-in-flux-insurers-scramble-to-meet-filing-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/with-health-law-in-flux-insurers-scramble-to-meet-filing-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"With Health Law in Flux, Insurers Scramble to Meet Filing Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" id=\"story-continues-2\">\u201cWe\u2019re confident that when the dust settles, the market for health insurance will stabilize in time for 2018,\u201d Mario Schlosser, the company\u2019s chief executive, wrote in a blog post. \u201cFor all of the political noise, there are simply too many lives at stake for representatives in Washington, D.C., not to do what\u2019s right for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" id=\"story-continues-3\">The company said that partnerships with health systems like the Cleveland Clinic to offer new plans in northeastern Ohio will allow it to be successful. \u201cIf you have the right products and the right partner, you can make it work,\u201d Mr. Schlosser said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Even as Senate Republicans hurry to finish their plan to overhaul the law, insurers must meet a series of state and federal filing deadlines. While the Wednesday deadline does not represent a final commitment by the insurer, \u201cit will be a good indicator of the health of these markets,\u201d said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">If an insurer misses the Wednesday deadline, regulators could still choose to accept a last-minute application, as they did last year in Arizona, to make sure residents had access to a policy through the state marketplace. \u201cState officials and governors are going to be very pragmatic to make sure people have coverage,\u201d Ms. Corlette said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Oscar\u2019s announcement follows a flurry of decisions in recent days by insurers gambling on the existing market. Medica, a small nonprofit insurer, said Monday that it would offer plans statewide in Iowa, although it is seeking rate increases that average 43 percent. Its decision would cover the yawning gap left by Aetna and the state Blue Cross plan, which exited the market for next year and raised the possibility that no carrier would offer coverage to the bulk of the state\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Centene, another large insurer, announced its plans<\/a> last week to offer coverage for the first time in Nevada, Missouri and Kansas.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"media-100000005177192\" class=\"media photo embedded layout-large-horizontal media-100000005177192\" role=\"group\"><span class=\"visually-hidden\">Photo<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2017\/06\/21\/science\/22INSURE2\/22INSURE2-master675.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"media-viewer-candidate\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Joseph R. Swedish, Anthem\u2019s chief executive, at a House hearing in 2015. He recently told CNBC, \u201cWe may have to exit certain markets because those markets are not sustainable.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n                        <span class=\"credit\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Credit<\/span><br \/>\n            Jacquelyn Martin\/Associated Press        <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">But other insurers, even those who are submitting proposals, seem ambivalent about staying. Two of the major companies that offer Blue Cross plans say they may file to meet Wednesday\u2019s deadline but have not made any final decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Health Care Service Corporation, which operates nonprofit Blue Cross plans, said it would file proposals in all five states where it offers coverage, but could still decide to leave. The insurer covers more than one million people in the individual market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Anthem, a major for-profit insurer offering Blue Cross plans in 14 states, has already decided to pull out of Ohio<\/a> but would not disclose its projections elsewhere. \u201cWe may have to exit certain markets because those markets are not sustainable,\u201d Anthem\u2019s chief executive, Joseph R. Swedish, said in an interview with CNBC last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"visually-hidden\" id=\"newsletter-promo-heading\">Newsletter Sign Up<\/h2>\n<p>    Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"headline\" \/>\n<p class=\"summary\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"success-message hidden\">Thank you for subscribing.<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"error submit-error hidden\">An error has occurred. Please try again later.<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"subscriber hidden\">You are already subscribed to this email.<\/h3>\n<p class=\"view-all-link hidden\">View all New York Times newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- close messages --><\/p>\n<ul class=\"footer\">\n<li id=\"sample-newsletter-link\" class=\"sample\">See Sample<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"manage-email\">Manage Email Preferences<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"logout hidden\">Not you?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"privacy\">Privacy Policy<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"contact\" \/>\n    <\/ul>\n<p><!-- close footer --><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Anthem said it would not make its filings public, leaving it up to state regulators to decide whether to disclose its plans.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" id=\"story-continues-4\">The exit by insurers like Aetna and Humana, as well as by some Blue Cross plans, is likely to lead to many more areas in the country that have only a single carrier in the state marketplace, according to a recent analysis<\/a> by Avalere, a health care consulting firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">But while the overall market is worsening, \u201cthere is a lot of variation by local market,\u201d said Dan Mendelson, Avalere\u2019s president. \u201cThere are some markets that are doing fine,\u201d he said, while others, particularly rural ones, could still be left without an insurer willing to offer coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Premiums are also likely to be higher, according to Avalere, which analyzed filings in eight states. Insurers are seeking an 18 percent increase, on average, for the most popular so-called silver plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Many insurers are blaming the current political uncertainty when asking state regulators for sharply higher prices. The Trump administration and Congress have yet to commit to critical funding for subsidies worth billions of dollars to low-income individuals. Insurers are also concerned that the administration will stop enforcing the penalties people face when they choose to go without coverage, which they say would also drive up prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Insurers \u201care going to build all of this uncertainty into their rates to the maximum extent to protect themselves,\u201d Ms. Corlette said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">Even those insurers that plan to stay say the market has been challenging. While its losses have narrowed, Oscar lost about than $200 million last year and said that other changes were needed to stabilize the market. \u201cWe are not immune to the pressures in the individual market,\u201d Mr. Schlosser said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">But he said he is working closely with state regulators to continue offering policies. \u201cWe are fighting the good fight in the trenches,\u201d he said. \u201cThey know they need to make the market work.\u201d<\/p>\n<footer class=\"story-footer story-content\"><!-- close story-meta --><br \/>\n    <\/footer>\n<p>Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe\u2019re confident that when the dust settles, the market for health insurance will stabilize in time for 2018,\u201d Mario Schlosser, the company\u2019s chief executive, wrote in a blog post. \u201cFor all of the political noise, there are simply too many lives at stake for representatives in Washington, D.C., not to do what\u2019s right for the <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/with-health-law-in-flux-insurers-scramble-to-meet-filing-deadline\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}